Description

BARNSTAPLE

SS5632 LITCHDON STREET
684-1/5/196 (South West side)
31/08/88 No.22
Beachcroft

GV II

House, now health authority offices. 1839. Solid, rendered
walls, at least partly of stone rubble. Slated roofs with old
brick chimney on each gable of main body of house; porch roof
hipped to left. 1 room wide and 2 rooms deep with central
staircase, the latter entered through a porch on left side.
2 storeys with semi-basement and garret. 2-window range.
Windows have slightly curved heads and contain 8-paned sashes.
Moulded board below eaves. Porch to left has round-arched
doorway with 6-panelled door and patterned fanlight. Plain
sash-window in upper storey.
Garden front (visible from Taw Vale and the riverside) has
rusticated basement with segmental-headed windows; to left,
sash window with 2 upright glazing bars, to right, small-paned
wood casement. Upper-storey windows have sashes with 9 panes
below and 6 above; in front of each a patterned iron
guard-rail. Entrance porch closely similar to reverse side,
except that the number of door panels may be different.
Right-hand (N) side wall has tall, round-arched stair window
with small panes and radial glazing bars in the head. 2
smaller pointed-arched windows with small panes in gable.
INTERIOR: porch has dado of decorated papier-mache.
Half-glazed inner door with coloured glass margin-panes.
Geometrical wood staircase with thin square balusters and
shaped step-ends; handrail voluted at the bottom. Stairhall
has dado matching that in porch; moulded cornice, foliated
chandelier boss, 6-panelled door to rear room, which has
panelled shutters, moulded cornice, foliated chandelier boss.
Front room sub-divided, section to right has 8-pointed boss.
First-floor landing has 6-panelled doors and foliated boss.
Rear room has cast-iron Gothic basket-grate; enriched cornice,
foliated boss, panelled shutters. Semi-basement, reached by
old stone steps from stairhall, has stone-flagged centre
passage. Rear room probably former kitchen with fireplace;
stone steps up to garden. Wine cellar with vaulted ceiling.
Pantry with slate shelves.
HISTORICAL NOTE: owners in 1986 had a deed of 1839 describing
the house as having been 'lately erected' on Corporation land.

Listing NGR: SS5607232781

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26665008

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)